Gator Pam

I had my most recent annual physical in mid December. At that time, my weight has been the highest it has been since before I started keto, my blood pressure was slightly high, and my a1c test for my type II diabetes came back over 7 again, which it has done every three months for the past two years, even with the diabetic and high blood pressure medication I am on. A couple of weeks later, around New Years, I started seeing the ads for the “natural Ozempic,” as one tends to see weight loss ads at the start of the year. I mostly ignored them, but my curiosity finally convinced me to watch one, which said there was a simple three ingredient recipe that could be easily made and taken daily to help weight loss and blood sugar. So, I watched it. Of course it was for a pill that was being sold, but I decided to do some searching and see if there was anything that could made at home. I had heard of the anti inflammatory benefits of ground turmeric in the past, so I looked to see if there was anything that could be made at home that could at least help. I found some articles which claimed the combination of ground turmeric, ground ginger, and black or cayenne pepper has been studied and found to be beneficial in some participants. I decided to add each to my two cups of coffee each morning. I started off with a quarter teaspoon of ground turmeric and an eighth of a teaspoon each of ground ginger and fresh cracked black peppercorn into each cup of coffee. This is in addition to the half a teaspoon of Ceylon cinnamon I have put into each cup of coffee for the past decade or so. The combination is reminiscent of chai in my coffee, but it’s not totally unpleasant. I made no other changes to anything in my daily routine. At the end of January I had a follow up hematologist appointment, and was surprised to see my weight was down five pounds since my physical the month before. I seriously expected it to be up a few pounds, as had been the trend for the past year or so, as well as having just gone through the holiday season. The next week at the start of February I increased the amount of ground turmeric, ground ginger, and ground black pepper, basically doubling each, so I was now having a teaspoon of ground turmeric, and a half a teaspoon each of ground ginger and fresh cracked black peppercorn daily in my coffee, as well as the teaspoon of Ceylon cinnamon. Again, I changed nothing else in my daily routine. Today I had a three month diabetic follow up at my primary care physician. My weight is down another seven pounds since I saw my hematologist at the end of January, my blood pressure was 113/75, and my a1c was 6.7, the first time I’ve been under 7 in a couple of years. I know, it’s very gradual and possibly very circumstantial, so I’m probably being silly to be hopeful about this. I need to stop the turmeric, ginger, and pepper for the next couple of weeks, as even western medicine admits that turmeric is a blood thinner and I have a procedure coming up the first week of April. But, trust me. Once the procedure is finished, I’m going to be adding them back in for as long as they seem to benefit me.

Eight different varieties of tomatoes, two in each pellet and two pellets of each variety. My two raised beds have room for 16 plants total, so I hope to get two strong plants of each variety to transplant in eight to ten weeks. If I wind up with more, I’ll offer them to friends or at a seed and plant swap. This is still all experimentation for me. Last year I started seeds I saved from the previous years San Marzano-style tomatoes, which were planted with other varieties in the same bed. The plants grew and produced, but I think they were smaller overall than the Roma tomatoes I had saved seed from, so they may have cross pollinated with the other varieties I grew. I’m growing two plants from Roma seeds I saved last year from the smaller tomatoes. We’ll see how they produce this year.

We have germination! I just got this set up yesterday, and even as compact as it is, it’s precariously balanced where I had room for it. Hopefully I can find a board the perfect width and length to give it stability.

The Luck o’ the Irish Americans to Ye! Sliced corned beef. I used a flat cut, rather than a point cut, even though I prefer the extra fat of the point cut. But the past few years the point cuts have shredded rather than sliced nicely. However, I also added an extra step of resting the brisket for half an hour after the 12 hour cook in the crockpot. It definitely firmed up the meat a little; in fact the taste was a little too dense for my liking. Not dry, but dense. I think I’ll try the same method next year, but I’ll go back to the point cut and see if the extra step works. Carrot, parsnip (was supposed to be turnip, but another member of the household picked up the ingredients and apparently misheard me), onion, potato, and cabbage Fresh out of the oven Irish Soda Bread The top buttered and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Removed from the Pullman loaf pan and cooling before slicing. An interior view of the soda bread. I used dried cranberries instead of raisins or currents. I reconstituted the dried cranberries by simmering in whiskey for 20 minutes and allowing them to cook before stirring into the dough. I find mixed straight into the dough they remain too chewy for me. This was perfect. My dinner plate.

I’m a third year raised bed gardener at Marymoor Community Garden in Redmond, WA. Zone 8b. I was a complete novice when I started three years ago in a single bed, and moved to a pair of raised beds with an arched trellis in between them last year. I still feel like a novice at this point, but I love sharing what I’m doing and getting advice from others. Today is indoor tomato seed sowing day. If they germinate and up pot well, they should be ready for hardening off in mid May and then transplanted out to my raised beds in late May/early June, depending on our temperature at the time. Here is my garden set up. I had agricultural fleece over my beds for the winter, as I overwintered garlic, asparagus, and a purple collard tree in the beds. I pulled the agricultural fleece back last week and removed the dried leaf mulch I had put over the beds to protect the soil over the winter. It looks like some settling occurred over the winter months, so I plan on adding some compost to bring level up before planting more. I hand raked in some lime as well as organic vegetable and tomato granular fertilizer, and noticed my red wrigglers appear to be getting active. I quartered up a butternut squash and pushed it lightly into the soil as food for the worms, but something kept digging the squash quarters out, although they didn’t seem to eat anything from them. I finally used a spade and dug deeper into the soil, completely burying the squash quarters. I figure the red wrigglers will find them deeper down. So far, whatever was disturbing them before hasn’t bothered them since burying them deeper. I grew eight varieties last year and saved seeds from all eight. This is my chart of how I sowed them in my seed starting tray. This is a 36 coco coir pellet starting tray. My intent is to transplant two of each variety into my raised beds. I put two seeds from a variety into each pellet, and did two pellets per variety. If I have 100% germination, I’ll have double the plants I need, but I know germination rates tend to be much lower than that, especially with self saved seeds. As I only needed 16 pellets, I removed the others in a pattern I found easy to chart and have stored them to be used next year. Not to mention, the San Marzano style seeds were saved from tomatoes that were grown from seeds I saved the year before. So these are second generation seeds. Since they were not isolated from other varieties when I grew them two years ago, they seemed to grow smaller than the crop I had the previous year. But they were plentiful and tasty. They also weren’t isolated last year, and won’t be this year, so I’ll see what I wind up with. If too far from the original, I won’t save those seeds this year, and start fresh next growing season. The seeds sown and covered over with a light layer of coco coir. The humidity dome on top until germination. This is going to sound out of the ordinary, but I’m germinating my seeds in my bathtub. I don’t have any place to set up a heat mat, and I have found the warmest place in the house to be in the enclosed bathroom with no window. So, until germination the seed tray will sit on the floor of the bathtub. The shower curtain will be drawn closed, and the bathroom door will be kept closed. I figure the occasional light from the bathroom being used won’t disturb the germination process too much. We’ll see what happens in a week or so.

Et tu, Brute?

Oh. My. Stars… My absolute favorite concert experience was attending seeing The Philip Glass Ensemble play the scores of The Qatsi Trilogy live while the films were shown overhead over the course of three nights. This was in either the late ‘90s or early aughts in Gainesville, FL. I never thought I would have the opportunity again, but apparently The Philip Glass Ensemble (most likely without Glass on keyboards, due to his age, whereas he was on keyboards when I attended the three shows) is touring Koyaanisqatsi at least, playing the score live along with the film. Of course I’m going to attend! If the tour comes to your area, I highly recommend trying to go. It’s a breath taking experience. https://seattlesymphony-prd-cd.flexaccelerator.com/en/concerttickets/calendar/2024-2025/25-philip-glass

Ouch. Is he OK? Did the deer run off? Or do y’all have venison to look forward to? Tonight starts the festival of Purim, with Shushan Purim following on Shabbes. It’s not in my tradition to bake cookies for the winter festivities, but I do make hamentaschen for Purim. This year I kept the count of each kind between a half a dozen for each of fruit filled, and closer to a dozen for the specialty ones. So we have: 6 fig 6 apricot 6 prune 7 espresso martini and 10 s’mores That’s still nearly three dozen for the three of us. That will definitely see us through the festival, and then some! Since each kind of the traditional fillings made about a dozen, I have enough to deliver them to some friends as well. Hopefully it will make their Purim, or at least their weekend, merry.

Ooo… I’m removing my overwinter layer of leaf mulch, and look what revealed itself underneath! It’s white because it had been covered by mulch, but I suspect it will turn green as it grows and is exposed to light.

Rabbit Rabbit! Rabbit!!

Our low last night on the Eastside of Seattle was 37, but we’re predicted to hit 62 for a high today. Predictions say we’ll have highs in the low 60s throughout the weekend, but return to highs in the low 50s next week. That’s a long run for us for False Spring. It will be interesting to see what is predicted for later in March. I’m itching to start working the soil in my raised beds.

Here on the Eastside of Seattle we can drop into the teens, but we typically average overnight lows in the high 20s and they only last a week or so. The food seems to weather the cold OK, as far as I know.

I have a friend who is planning to move across the country at the end of next month. She has a lot of canned goods she’s not planning on taking with her. I saw a photo the other day the free pantry at one of the churches in Kirkland showing it could use some donations. I also went through some of my shelved food stuffs I wasn’t using, packed them up and picked up some goods from my friend. I then made my first donation at the pantry. Here’s hoping I did it right. I’ll probably make a stop once a week until my friend’s back stock is diminished. The outside of the pantry at Holy Spirit. What I found when I first opened it. And a few non food items on the bottom. After I added the items I brought. I hope some of these items will fill needy bellies. A lot of these foods need a can opener. Not that I can afford it, but if I could find a deal on bulk inexpensive manual can openers, like at least 100 but no more than $20 for them, I might order some to donate along with the canned goods.

I just returned from the Galentines Day bake off competition where I entered the Meyer Lemon Cheesecake with Blueberries that had the lumpy batter. Long story short, I didn’t win my category, even though I had a 50/50 chance as there were only two entries. Read the captions on the photos for details, including what the head judge told me as to why I didn’t win. As a reminder, here’s the practice cheesecake I made last week. This is the entry cheesecake immediately after decorating it. I tried a different method of piping the lemon curd which worked even less well, so I won’t do that method again. However, I think increasing the size of the heart definitely helped to define its shape better than the smaller one. Because the piping was so terrible, I decided to dress up the sides by adding miniature candy hearts to the sides. I think it definitely looks pretty… FullSizeRender.MOV Here’s how I displayed the cheesecake at the competition. We had to display our cakes by 12:30 PM with the winners scheduled to be announced at 3:00 PM. I used the lid of the inexpensive Dollar Tree cake carrier to hold ice so the cheesecake could sit out without being refrigerated. My only competition in the cake category. Obviously a carrot cake by someone much better at decorating than I am. This carrot cake won my category. It definitely looks luscious! What the head judge told me “off the record” after the competition ended was that the flavor and texture of the cheesecake itself was spot on. There was no evidence of the lumpy batter (yay!). If I had left it at that, I would have edged out the carrot cake to win. However, while the judges appreciated the color and look of the candy hearts on the sides of the cheesecake, they said the candies did not soften at all and that the crunch detracted from the smoothness of the rest of the bite. For that choice, they awarded it to the carrot cake. I had fun preparing, entertaining, and attending this event, though. I appreciate everyone’s input on the flavor choice and decoratingg ideas. I think I’ll definitely enter again if it’s held again next year!

I decided to do the Meyer Lemon Cheesecake with Blueberries for the bake-off. I’m very glad I did a practice run; several of my experiments did not work out. Fresh out of the Instant Pot and topped with sweetened sour cream and zest. The first lesson learned was to not use parchment paper around the sides. I thought it would help the sides look smooth rather than blurry, but the sides actually came out pocked as I pulled the parchment away. Removed from the push pan and plated for the three day rest. After “aging” for three days and ready to be decorated. I’m really terrible at decorating. This was taken immediately after decorating. Lessons learned here is to use a narrower tip to pipe the lemon curd, define the shape of the heart more with the whole blueberries flooding with the pie filling, and to not use the candies Meyer lemons at all. Their texture does not compliment the cheesecake at all. The decorated cheesecake after being refrigerated for a couple of hours. I think I’ll also make the heart in the middle a touch larger, to emphasize the shape more. One last top view before slicing. An interior view and three slices. I tried to a blueberry pie filling swirl, but the filling all sank to the bottom and made the crust a bit soggy. I saw a technique where one takes half the batter and flavors it, fill the pan with alternating scoops of the batters, and then swirl it together. I was concerned that method would turn the entire cheesecake purple, but it has to work better than what I did. Now to decide if I want to experiment doing it that way on my entry cheesecake, or leave out the swirl completely. A close up of a slice. Lessons learned from this practice run: If trying to swirl, use the half and half method and hope for the best since I don’t have the funds to do a second practice run. Do not use parchment around the sides of the push pan for a cleaner edge. Enlarge the heart in the center. Do not use candied lemon slices for decorating.

Eek! I’m a day late!!!

Prepare yourself!

For many years, I had no idea what time of day I was born. I had misplaced my original microfiche birth certificate and the replacement I received from the City of New York did not record the time of birth, only the date. This past year I finally found the way to order another official City of New York birth certificate which does include the time of birth. It turns out I was born in the early morning hours on the 21st of January in 1960, which apparently matches this year’s Hebrew calendar. So, prior to sunset today, my secular and Hebrew birthdays match up. From posts I have seen from others, it is apparently customary to wish others well on ones Hebrew birthday. I’m a few hours late, but even so I wish for all of you health, peace, and fulfillment. May you find your bliss and joy in the year ahead, and may it carry you through any challenges forthcoming.

From input I’ve received in various places, I’m going to go with the lemon blueberry. I’ve made it before and have more confidence than with going with completely new flavors. I’ll do a practice one in the next two weeks; someone suggested I swirl blueberry into the batter. I have a decent homemade blueberry pie filling I can leave the uncooked blueberries out of which I think will swirl nicely, and then I can use it in addition to the lemon curd for decorating. The practice one will test how the swirl works out, how it tastes and then to practice my decoration ideas. Ah… You probably would not care for mine then. I’m completely the opposite. I much prefer the style and texture of the cheesecakes made in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan in the mid 20th century; Cheesecake Factory’s are tasty, but they’re too light and fluffy for me. Mine are the denser, heavier Jewish delicatessen-style cheesecake. The competition is on February 8th, so I have time to hone it in.

woo-HOO!!! https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2025/01/17/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-the-equal-rights-amendment/

So, if one were to be considering entering a local amateur baking contest with a cheesecake, what flavor cheesecake would best appeal to a variety of judges one knows nothing about? Stick to the basics and do a plain New York with a homemade fruit topping? Freshen it up a little with a Meyer Lemon Cheesecake served with homemade lemon curd? Go indulgent with a white and milk chocolate peanut butter cup cheesecake? Maybe add a touch of coconut with a Samoan cheesecake? A childhood classic of a Cookies and Cream cheesecake? (no photo at this time) A Pumpkin cheesecake? Chocolate cheesecake with fresh strawberries? Possibly a savory Smoked Salmon Cheesecake? Or maybe a flavor I haven’t considered that would earn the judges accolades? (all of these were made by me in the past)

Happy Epiphany/Three Kings Day/Little Christmas

So… The past three days have been busy with bureaucracy dealings. As this is my birthday month where I’m turning 65, I am transitioning from Washington State Classic Medicaid for Adults, known as Apple Health to Medicare with Washington State Senior Classic Medicaid as my Medigap coverage. Unfortunately, while I wanted to avoid Medicare Advantage Plans at all costs, I could not find a Part D plan which had my walking chemotherapy in their formulary at a premium and copay I could afford, even with Extra Help. I’m now enrolled in a Medicare Advantage Plan starting next month. After investigating, I went with the plan which also has provided my Medicaid Managed Care Plan for all these years since I moved to Washington. Unfortunately, I do have several specialists I may need to change, particularly my original breast surgeon who I see for annual follow ups and my dentist, but it appears as if all of my other doctors are in plan. Except for my allergy medication, which is a prescribed version of Zyrtec, all of my medications, including my chemo, is in this plan’s formulary. Hopefully the transition will go fairly smoothly. I’m used to being on a Managed Care Plan, and have actually been very happy with all of the doctors and specialists who have seen me. I’m going into this Advantage Plan hoping the experience will be similar. All that said to explain why I am a few days late with posting this gif. I have either been in the DSHS offices or on the phone with Medicare and Apple Health choosing plans and figuring out how this transitional month between Apple Health and the Advantage Plan will work, especially in getting my monthly multi-thousand dollar chemotherapy refill. Happy Birthday Month to me! https://tenor.com/bWkWc.gif

חנוכה שמח! Happy Hanukkah!